Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Memorial Service
The memorial service was scheduled for Monday May 27th, the day after graduation. I was in charge of making sure there was compost accessibility at the event. I knew exactly where to go to get a bin.
I pulled up to the all-too-familiar parking lot behind Aladdin's in Collegetown. It was here that CU Compost installed a compost bin for Cornell students in Collegetown to use. Unfortunately the bin was overflowing due to the fact that Cayuga Compost hadn't emptied it in a few weeks. Chris's solution was to take some of the raw compost back to his house on Cayuga Heights rd. So we drove up and tried to lift the 60-gallon bin into the back of his car but it was so full that we couldn't even lift it a foot. So we drove to Chris's house and grabbed a bin and pitchfork and his volvo so that we could fit the bin upright in the drunk. Feeling satisfied with our solution we enthusiastically drove back to the grossly overweight compost bin.
As soon as we got there we used the pitchfork to scoop as much compost as we could into the bin we'd brought. Slowly the bin became emptier as we became more nauseated from the stench. Finally our bin was full with fresh compost that we heaved into the back of Chris's car and pulled the Cayuga Compost bin out through the tunnel to the curb. Then we drove back to Chris's house and dragged the bin over to his wire compost bin in the backyard. We emptied out the compost and covered it with leaves.
Another issue we had with the bin was that we had to exclude non-students from using it since our funding source strictly funded initiatives that benefitted students. This did not sit well with Chris since he believed in equal opportunity for all in all matters, including composting. So he put his own bins out that were labelled "Community Compost". Later on Chris would leave five-gallon buckets labelled "Community Compost" since he believed in equal opportunity for all matters, including composting. He provided this free service to all community members throughout the year.
Being the president of "CU Compost", an organization that Chris and I both helped found at Power Shift 2011, I knew I had to ensure that there would be composting at the memorial service. So I went to fetch the 60-gallon bucket from behind Aladdin's so that I could bring it to Taughannock Park. It was about half-full but I managed to heave it up into the back of my Prius and tried to keep the lid shut. I put a towel underneath it to catch the leak, which inevitably came. I knew my car would smell for weeks afterward but it was entirely worth it. It felt as if Chris was somehow sharing in the fun, blissfully unaware of how unorthodox the task at hand was. His obliviousness to the societal norms was one of his virtues that I've always admired and in many ways share.
On my way to Taughannock I was to pick up a friend who fortunately was also an officer of CU Compost. Had it been anyone else I might have offended him with the stench in my car, but being a fellow compost-lover he approved of the gesture. We commiserated on our way to the service. He brought up the death of a friend from Watermargin as well. I had several friends from Watermargin who were strongly impacted by his death, but I did not know him personally. I had not been aware that my friend in CU Compost knew him as well. Multiple deaths over a course of a single semester is very hard to take.
When we arrived at Taughannock Park I unloaded the bin from the back of the car and dragged it out to approximately where the food was outside the pavilion. A huge crowd had formed and a number of reporters were on the scene. I had told Chris's brother that I was willing to record the memorial service so I went to find him and the camera I would be using. I asked one of Chris's Developing Pictures friends about how to use the camera and he tried it out but admitted that he was not sure. So instead I used my own.
Before the service began I was told to speak to a reporter about the incident. I was not particularly in the mood to speak but I did so anyway but they held me up until someone interrupted to let me know the service was starting. I abruptly excused myself and walked into a packed pavilion. Chris's family stood at the front and Chris's brother had already begun speaking. I hastened to find a good spot to film. Chris's father spoke about how grateful he was for everyone who had volunteered during the search party and announced that he was concluding it. He figured that Chris would have said "Don't look for me, I'll come up when I'm ready". He then handed the microphone over to Danfung who said a few words then proceeded to play a slideshow of films that Chris had made.
It started with one filmed as a Christmas card of sorts. It showed a series of shots of Chris and his family around Cornell's campus when Chris was deciding whether he should transfer there. Then came the one where Chris performed extreme ski tricks with "Too Legit to Quit" as the too appropriate choice of background music. Chris's skills on skis were legendary. It was no wonder he won my jacket in a free style ski competition.
His next video was one of my favorites. It was a music video that were original lyrics written by Chris. It was for a project he did for a communications class that didn't earn him a good grade since it didn't exactly follow the assignment, but it was a really excellent movie nonetheless. Chris pretended as though he were talking to an animal that was trying to convince him to change his ways to save its species. Chris hilariously transitioned between voices by wearing a hat of Ernie when he was narrating the animal. He theatrically pretended to be a wasteful, apathetic citizen by doing things he would never do like drink bottled water while portraying a righteous, calm animal that alerted him to the err of his ways. In the end, the human does the right thing and choses to live life more frugally. He realizes he's "gotta find something good to do and do it every day" and thanks the animal for helping him understand this. Such comical but truthful communication was the embodiment of Chris's work as an advocate for environmental justice.
I pulled up to the all-too-familiar parking lot behind Aladdin's in Collegetown. It was here that CU Compost installed a compost bin for Cornell students in Collegetown to use. Unfortunately the bin was overflowing due to the fact that Cayuga Compost hadn't emptied it in a few weeks. Chris's solution was to take some of the raw compost back to his house on Cayuga Heights rd. So we drove up and tried to lift the 60-gallon bin into the back of his car but it was so full that we couldn't even lift it a foot. So we drove to Chris's house and grabbed a bin and pitchfork and his volvo so that we could fit the bin upright in the drunk. Feeling satisfied with our solution we enthusiastically drove back to the grossly overweight compost bin.
As soon as we got there we used the pitchfork to scoop as much compost as we could into the bin we'd brought. Slowly the bin became emptier as we became more nauseated from the stench. Finally our bin was full with fresh compost that we heaved into the back of Chris's car and pulled the Cayuga Compost bin out through the tunnel to the curb. Then we drove back to Chris's house and dragged the bin over to his wire compost bin in the backyard. We emptied out the compost and covered it with leaves.
Another issue we had with the bin was that we had to exclude non-students from using it since our funding source strictly funded initiatives that benefitted students. This did not sit well with Chris since he believed in equal opportunity for all in all matters, including composting. So he put his own bins out that were labelled "Community Compost". Later on Chris would leave five-gallon buckets labelled "Community Compost" since he believed in equal opportunity for all matters, including composting. He provided this free service to all community members throughout the year.
Being the president of "CU Compost", an organization that Chris and I both helped found at Power Shift 2011, I knew I had to ensure that there would be composting at the memorial service. So I went to fetch the 60-gallon bucket from behind Aladdin's so that I could bring it to Taughannock Park. It was about half-full but I managed to heave it up into the back of my Prius and tried to keep the lid shut. I put a towel underneath it to catch the leak, which inevitably came. I knew my car would smell for weeks afterward but it was entirely worth it. It felt as if Chris was somehow sharing in the fun, blissfully unaware of how unorthodox the task at hand was. His obliviousness to the societal norms was one of his virtues that I've always admired and in many ways share.
On my way to Taughannock I was to pick up a friend who fortunately was also an officer of CU Compost. Had it been anyone else I might have offended him with the stench in my car, but being a fellow compost-lover he approved of the gesture. We commiserated on our way to the service. He brought up the death of a friend from Watermargin as well. I had several friends from Watermargin who were strongly impacted by his death, but I did not know him personally. I had not been aware that my friend in CU Compost knew him as well. Multiple deaths over a course of a single semester is very hard to take.
When we arrived at Taughannock Park I unloaded the bin from the back of the car and dragged it out to approximately where the food was outside the pavilion. A huge crowd had formed and a number of reporters were on the scene. I had told Chris's brother that I was willing to record the memorial service so I went to find him and the camera I would be using. I asked one of Chris's Developing Pictures friends about how to use the camera and he tried it out but admitted that he was not sure. So instead I used my own.
Before the service began I was told to speak to a reporter about the incident. I was not particularly in the mood to speak but I did so anyway but they held me up until someone interrupted to let me know the service was starting. I abruptly excused myself and walked into a packed pavilion. Chris's family stood at the front and Chris's brother had already begun speaking. I hastened to find a good spot to film. Chris's father spoke about how grateful he was for everyone who had volunteered during the search party and announced that he was concluding it. He figured that Chris would have said "Don't look for me, I'll come up when I'm ready". He then handed the microphone over to Danfung who said a few words then proceeded to play a slideshow of films that Chris had made.
It started with one filmed as a Christmas card of sorts. It showed a series of shots of Chris and his family around Cornell's campus when Chris was deciding whether he should transfer there. Then came the one where Chris performed extreme ski tricks with "Too Legit to Quit" as the too appropriate choice of background music. Chris's skills on skis were legendary. It was no wonder he won my jacket in a free style ski competition.
His next video was one of my favorites. It was a music video that were original lyrics written by Chris. It was for a project he did for a communications class that didn't earn him a good grade since it didn't exactly follow the assignment, but it was a really excellent movie nonetheless. Chris pretended as though he were talking to an animal that was trying to convince him to change his ways to save its species. Chris hilariously transitioned between voices by wearing a hat of Ernie when he was narrating the animal. He theatrically pretended to be a wasteful, apathetic citizen by doing things he would never do like drink bottled water while portraying a righteous, calm animal that alerted him to the err of his ways. In the end, the human does the right thing and choses to live life more frugally. He realizes he's "gotta find something good to do and do it every day" and thanks the animal for helping him understand this. Such comical but truthful communication was the embodiment of Chris's work as an advocate for environmental justice.
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